Young Goodman Brown is a short story full of “faith” and “love” that represent religion. Tempted by the devil and going against “Faith” or his wife. The devil represents the dark disturbing forest and the man with the walking stick that looked as if it were a dark serpent. The serpent religiously displays the picture of the serpent that tempted eve in the Garden of Eden in the bible. The dark forest was written in a time period by Hawthorne during the period of the Salem witch trials. The people believed the woods and the forests to be evil and forbidding. Going into the forest, Goodman Brown enters them anyway even though he knows he is going against “Faith.” He does so because others are also. The temptation from the devil and from the people around him makes him decide to enter the forest.
His wife “Faith” represents the good in people. She is the rock that holds him close to God. The women during that time period were usually stayed at home wives that were very close to God and their religion. Young Goodman Brown’s wife wears a pink ribbon. This ribbon displays a symbol of hope and faith towards Brown’s religion.
Towards the end when Goodman Brown realizes that everyone sins and you can never get away from temptation it finally hits home when he sees his priest and the townspeople committing sins along with his wife “Faith.” The pink ribbon floats down from above as if the “faith” with God is dissipating. The moral of the short story is to not fade your faith and to stay away from temptations and sins just because everybody else does.
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